VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register
BY EDWARD PENTIN 04/21/2016
Cardinal George Pell, the prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, has said he was “a bit surprised” by the decision of the Secretariat of State to suspend an independent audit of the Vatican’s finances.
In a short statement released this morning, he said he anticipates the audit will “resume shortly” after “discussions and clarification” of some issues, and added that the work of the “internal auditor which covers all areas has not been interrupted.”
Yesterday the Register reported that the Secretariat of State had sent a letter this week to all Vatican entities saying the first external audit aimed at raising the Vatican’s finances to international anti-money laundering standards had been suspended.
The Vatican had hired accountancy giant PricewaterhouseCoopers in December to conduct the audit on the instructions of the Council for the Economy, the 15-member monitoring body set up to oversee the work of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy.
The move to suspend the initiative has been seen as a move not only to undermine the work of Cardinal Pell and the department he runs, but moreover the Council for the Economy which was responsible for appointing the auditors.
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